The Woman's College of Baltimore was founded in 1884, when Reverend John Franklin Goucher, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his wife, Mary C. Fisher, offered land and $150,000 to establish a college for women.
The first class of 48 women studied physics, biology, astronomy, math, languages, history and philosophy—a rigorous curriculum based on that of The Johns Hopkins University, which then excluded women. Before the turn of the century, Goucher had graduated the first two women doctors in Baltimore.
The design of this building, the school's first, was based on a plan developed for the area by Stanford White, architect of the adjacent Lovely Lane Church. Local architect Charles L. Carson and builder Benjamin F. Bennett adapted White's design into the shape of the letter "E" as a memorial to the founder's deceased daughter Eleanor.
In 1910 the college was renamed Goucher in honor of its founders. Throughout their long career, the Gouchers energetically supported Methodist education, particularly in the Far East. At one time, their funds maintained 120 primary schools in India alone. Goucher College, still one of the most prestigious women's colleges in the nation, moved to the wooded countryside of Towson in 1953.
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